Paul and Lucy Spadoni periodically live in Tuscany to explore Paul’s Italian roots, practice their Italian and enjoy “la dolce vita.”
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Sunday, November 8, 2015

And now our life has become mundane again -- and for that we are thankful

Saturday,
November 7

Our slim lavatrice fits just right in the bagno.

After
several false hopes, we finally found an idraulico who could come
right away to make the connections needed for our washing machine,
stove and dishwasher. And just in time, because we were almost out of
clean clothes. I celebrated by cooking a big pot of minestrone using
vegetables I had purchased from the outdoor market at Chiesina
Uzzanese. Lucy spent almost all day organizing the kitchen and
running four loads of laundry.

This
sounds pretty mundane, but what it actually means is that we now have
a normal life here. I had expected we’d need more time and effort
to put the house in order, but we are done, for the most part.
Everything is unpacked. Everything works.

We
had looked at many houses in the past five years, and most of them
needed a pile of work. Certainly a rustic ancient farmhouse can spark
the imagination and fill one’s mind with endless possibilities, but
fixer-uppers also occupy my mind with thoughts of sweat and
headaches. We are here to experience culture and to relax. In our lives, we have
done our share of house building and furniture shopping already.

As
for my concern about the bathroom’s odious odors, that turned out
to be a false alarm. I looked again in the attic and found that the
space above the bathroom is vented after all, and cleaning the
bathroom ceiling and floor with lots of ammonia has worked wonders.

We
took some time out today to stroll up and down via Roma to experience the
Sapori di Autunno, a small festa to celebrate the making of new wine
and olive oil. We shared a glass of vino novello and bruschetta with
new olive oil. The bruschetta had been sprinkled with so much salt that we couldn’t
finish it. This is our second Montecarlo festa in less than two
weeks, and it’s events like this that we usually miss because of our habit
of coming to Italy in the winter. Maybe we’ll have to come again
next fall during one of the bigger festas.

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About Me

First off, before you hassle me about our title, Lucy thought of it. Yes, I know some people may think broad is derogatory, but the etymology is uncertain and she doesn’t find it offensive, and it made me laugh. We have been married since 1974 and are empty-nesters now, which allows me to bring my submerged Italophilia into the open. We first came to live in Italy from February-April in 2011 and have returned during the same months every year. From 2011-2015, we lived in San Salvatore, at the foot of the hilltop city Montecarlo, where my paternal grandparents were born, raised and, in 1908, married. In late 2015, we bought a home in Montecarlo. We come for a variety of purposes: We want to re-establish contact with distant cousins in both Nonno’s and Nonna’s families, we want to learn the language and see what it is like to live as Italians in modern Italy, we like to travel and experience different cultures. Even if we aren’t successful at achieving these purposes, we love Italy and enjoy every moment here, so there is no chance we will be disappointed. I am grateful to God for giving me a wife who is beautiful, clever, adaptable and willing to jump into my dreams wholeheartedly.